This post includes:
How to study for Step 1?
Study material
How to memorize everything?
How did I study after being out of school for more than 2 years?
How much time does it take to prepare the exam?
𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗗𝗢:
•Uworld qbank x2 or 3 times
•First Aid x4 or 5 times
•Pathoma videos
•Anki flashcards
𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐈𝐅 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: •Kaplan and Board & Beyond VIDEOS for subjects that you don’t understand •100 cases Anatmy shelf notes •Sketchy medical (If you memorize with photos/ stories this might work for you. They sketch a story for every microbe, pathology, drug, etc. it’s impressive how they do it. I didn’t do it on my preparation, but a lot of people recommend it.) •Golijan Audios are very outdated (like 20 years old) but is so funny to listen to this guy, you can find his audios for free online. And listening to him while your are walking/ exercising is very fun, he makes tons of jokes, it's like listening a Stand up comedian, but you are learning USMLE! lol
𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄: •Amboss Qbank •Kaplan Qbank •USMLE-Rx Qbank
𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋: •Use USMLE material to study for your classes •Make sure that you always review the material in First Aid while you are studying that unit in class.
𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄:
•It’s VERY important to understand every concepts, do tons of questions, discuss the topics, take notes.
•Once you start doing question after questions you will see that most of the concepts are repeated, so please UNDERSTAND them all!𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐢𝐝?
•First Aid is so compact, it’s the USMLE bible, literally has it has 95% of your exam. But it’s not just about memorizing it! It’s also understanding every concept.
•I would recommend to go over FA about 4-5 times.
•I assure you that every time that you read it, YOU WILL SEE NEW CONCEPTS, that you never saw before, new things will appear like magic every time your read it! And make Ankis about it!
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐔𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃?
•Uworld is not just a qbank, it EXPLAINS almost EVERY USMLE concept.
•My recommendation is to start almost from DAY 1, yes, start Uworld ASAP, and do it 2-3 times during your preparation period.
•Don’t worry about the %, how many right questions you are getting. WORRY ABOUT UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPTS!! •Your first pass will take you about 6-8 months (Maybe less, maybe more)
•Then do it again in like 3 months, and one more time during you FULL TIME DEDICATION PERIOD RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EXAM, CRAM UWORLD IN 3-4 WEEKS!!
𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨𝐬?
•Dr. Sattar explains everything exceptionally good!!
•There might be like 2-3 errors in his videos. But everything is so well explained, and so HIGH YIELD.
•His book is good, yes. But his videos are FABULOUS!!
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐈?
•Anki is a platform that you can make your own flashcard.
•If you got android it's free, also computer version is free, and for iPhone is $25 dollars, but trust me, it’s worth EVERY PENNY!!
•You can put photos into your flashcard, different colors, and even audios.
•You can also download other’s people flashcards, but I highly recommend to make your own cards!!
•Soon I will show some examples on how I did my Anki cards, I made over 2,000! I will make a word document out of them and give it out. I can’t yet due to copyright reasons, but soon I will have mines available! 🙂
𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐘 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃?
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗗𝗢 𝗜 𝗗𝗢 𝗜𝗙 𝗜 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗧 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗔 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘𝗣𝗧
1. Watch videos
(Kaplan, Bnb, etc, even Youtube has a lot of great explanations!
2. Grab the book and read it from there! (Eg, Kaplan books, High-yield books)
3. Discuss everythig new that you learned with your friends.
4. Make/ join Whatsapp group.
Share questions with them and discuss!
I would call some friends at like 1 am after I finished my studies, while walking back home from the library, just to talk about the topics that we learned during that day. •I can’t stress this enough, it’s SO IMPORTANT to discuss concepts and share questions with your friends!!
•There are tons of people studying for step 1 that can become your virtual friends!!
•I actually made a lot of friends during my preparation, with some of them we even met in person and became my best friends.
•What you are doing is not just STEP 1, it’s a journey, the USMLE JOURNEY. You will meet a lot of friends that will accompany you all along your journey! 🙂
𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐌𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟏?
•Very hard to answer. •It can go from 6 months to 2 years. A lot of people will lie to you, they will tell you: "I prepared STEP 1 in 2-3 months and got a great score." Don’t believe them, they either prepared for it all along their school years, or they are only mentioning their dedicated period.
𝑾𝒆𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙨 𝙩𝙤𝙤
•We will face tons of problems, stressful situations, during our preparation. It’s very important to keep going, if you are facing a stressful time, try to do at least 5 questions a day or something. But don’t stop for a long time, because then it’s very hard to come back.
•That’s why I recommend also making your own Ankis. I had a lot of problems/ situations during my USMLE journey. I had to stop a couple of times. But I felt like even if I forgot a topic, I had it on my Anki cards, and it was easy to review and remember it again.
•You can read some of the problems that I faced during my USMLE journey and how I overcame them on 𝗠𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 post
𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓:
•You will find TONS of bibliography for STEP 1. Try to stick to what works best for you
•What I’m describing is 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑶𝑵𝑳𝒀 𝑾𝑨𝒀 to approach STEP 1 of course
•There are many many ways, I’m just posting my recommendation! 🙂•Really study hard and deep for STEP 1, don't rush trough it, even if they change to PASS/FAIL system, 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎❗❗Most of it's concepts will be repeated in STEP 2 CS, CK, and even STEP 3! Learn it once very good, and you will learn it forever! 😀
𝘼𝙩 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙎𝙊 𝙈𝙐𝘾𝙃, specially if you graduated a couple of years ago from medical school. How did I start my Steps preparation?
•I started my USMLE preparation after 2 years after finishing medical school. And 5-6 away after I took my basic science subjects at Med School. Eg, Histology, biochem, etc.
•I felt like I was starting from CERO, literally from CERO. But after reading, studying, discussing topics, watching videos, things will start to sound familiar, and you will start to memorize and improve more and more everything.
•I recommend to start from the subject that you like the most, you will get more into it from the beginning and stay motivated! Eg, I started from pathology.
(Most people would leave patho for the end, I would just tell you as I mentioned, start from your most favorite subject!)
𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒔 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆!! 🙂
Soon I will post how to study for STEP 2 CK and STEP 2 CS.
Good luck everyone, keep studying hard and pursing your dreams!! 😀
𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘙𝘖𝘈𝘋 𝘔𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘛 𝘉𝘌 𝘓𝘖𝘕𝘎,
𝘍𝘜𝘓𝘓 𝘖𝘍 𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘏𝘖𝘓𝘌𝘚 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘊𝘜𝘙𝘝𝘌𝘚, 𝘜𝘗𝘚 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘋𝘖𝘞𝘕𝘚,
𝘉𝘜𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘑𝘖𝘜𝘙𝘕𝘌𝘠 𝘐𝘚 𝘊𝘖𝘔𝘗𝘓𝘌𝘛𝘌𝘓𝘠 𝘞𝘖𝘙𝘛𝘏 𝘐𝘛 !!
My idea about creating www.doctorsebas.com is to put everything that you need for USMLE together in just one place, so you don't waste precious time going crazy trying to find something, and instead use that time to study, work or do more productive things :)
Love you all,
Sebastian Arruarana, MD Fb: Doctor Sebas Instagram: @doctor.sebas